Skipton 17 Bradford and Bingley 37

Cracking local derby in the early spring sunshine.....

Skipton travelled to Bingley with a strong side (though notable absentees due to holistic work commitments) full of confidence and raring to test themselves against a much higher ranked opposition.
Bs unable to field a full fifteen took up Skiptons offer of two players, therefore with Brian Brocksom and Cam Braithwaite bolstering their pack the referee blew his whistle.
This cringeworthy noise became a constant for the next eighty minutes.
With Brian Brocksom playing like a man possessed it soon became obvious Skipton had made a grave mistake and after only five minutes Bs went over for an unconverted try. Despite superb scrummaging work by the front five of Alex Farquhar,Zach Bullock,Rob Morgan,Luke Barnaby and Adam Burkes, it was the screeching of the pea that decided the next score with a quick tap taken by Bs and on this occasion Alex Bullock giving away at least six stone was unable to keep his man up.
After another ten minutes of stop start rugby in which the shrill call of the lesser spotted yellow shirt was quite prominent Skipton upped their game, skipper Callum Kay opened up his more than competent centres of Miff Smith and Callum Patrick who tore through the defence with Callum Patrick going over and Kay adding the extras.
Like a kettle on the boil both side were penalised for a few minutes although the Skipton line out was working like a dream, what with Harry Jake Maltby dominant in the air and Luke Barnaby securing ball Bradford and Bingley scored next.
From the restart Skip pressured the opposition, forced a knock on and quickly recycled the ball allowing skipton's backs in again, with James Ackers going on one of his many runs crossing the whitewash.
Half time 12 - 15
The second half saw Bs keeping the two Skipton players despite now having a player on the bench and it was from one of his many brakes that Brian Brocksom fed his teammate a very flat ball putting him in out wide.
Skipton made an immediate riposte through some pertinacious work in the loose
with Morgan Bibby and Zach Webster disrupting opposition ball where ever they went, it was Luke Barnaby however who pilfered the ball from a maul and offloaded to new number one son Zach Bullock to score.
Andrew John Maclean linked perfectly with forwards and backs giving the game a much needed injection of pace, Owen 'brow' Higson replacing Alex Bullock caused a nuisance of himself when he linked up with fighting fullback Andy Bullock but once again it was the perpetual peeping of the the whistle that denied Skipton or Bradford and Bingley any ball to work with.
It was with the score at 37-17 when the whistle was mercifully sounded for the last time, this came as a relief to both sides as the game had become a saturnine mess which no one was enjoying.
All this being said Skipton played some good rugby when allowed and the whole team acquitted themselves admirably
Most valuable player for Skipton was Callum Patrick who proved how good a player he can be in eighty minutes.
MVP for Bradford and Bingley was Brian Brocksom who proved he is not playing at flanker for the opposition again.